Well good morning, good afternoon and good evening, wherever you are in the world, hello and welcome to the Monday 20th August edition of EV News Daily. It’s Martyn Lee here with the news you need to know about electric cars and the move towards sustainable transport.

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GEN 2 FORMULA E CAR WILL SHOCK THE WORLD

I picked this one up on Motorsport.com a couple of days ago and have been meaning to talk with you about it.

“Newly-crowned Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne believes people will be shocked by the progress the series will make when its Gen2 car is introduced for the 2018/19 season.”

The next seasons starts on 15th December 2018 in Saudi Arabia, then takes in Morocco, Mexico, Hong Kong, China, Italy, France, Monaco, Germany, Switzerland and ends up in New York on 13th and 14th July next year.

com say: “Nissan will take over from Renault at the e.dams squad, while BMW becomes a full FE manufacturer, and Mercedes affiliate HWA joins ahead of the German marque entering the series alongside Porsche for season six.”

We’re looking forward to double the battery capacity and double the power, with cars running at 200kW as a standard power setting.

Formula E correspondent Alex Kalinauckas invited Jean-Éric Vergne to the Autosport offices to talk about his incredible 2018 season in Formula E. Last month, Vergne collected his first FE drivers’ title and Techeetah beat several larger squads to secure second in the team’s championship, narrowly missing out to Audi in the final race. I’ll put a link to an Autosport.com YouTube interview in the show notes.

A Reuters report over the weekend said that “Toyota will build additional capacity at its auto plant in China’s Guangzhou, a company source said, in addition to beefing up production at a factory in Tianjin city by 120,000 vehicles a year.”

With Toyota it’s a case of do as i say, not do as I do. Here in the UK Toyota sense the money is in hybrids so they’re running an ad campaign selling you their hybrids which are “self charging” and which you don’t have to plug in. Whereas in China, it’s a different story.

“Toyota plans to build additional capacity in Tianjin to produce 10,000 all-electric battery cars and 110,000 plug-in hybrid electric cars a year. In addition to boosting manufacturing capacity, Toyota also plans to significantly expand its sales networks and focus more on electric car technologies as part of the strategy, the sources said, declining to be identified as they are not authorized to speak to the media.”

We’ve heard from one of the world’s largest auto makers but what about one of the most specialist.

“For nearly 120 years Morgan Motor Company has been building three- and four-wheeled vehicles in a tiny factory in western England. The company’s iconic design is instantly recognizable, largely for how little it has changed since its introduction 83 years ago.” Reports RoadShow by CNET: “Today, Morgan makes three vehicles, with five different engines. Soon, a fully electric car will join its fleet. Fewer than 200 employees build around 800 vehicles a year. The cars are still largely made by hand, though modern manufacturing methods are employed where necessary.”

THE VERDICT ON THE I8 ROADSTER FROM BMW? IT’S ELECTRIC ? AND IN A GOOD WAY

It’s always interesting to see what mainstream media are saying about EV’s, the public perception, the general sentiment about them.

The Sun newspapers in the UK, a bit of a divisive title I must admit, have been looking at the BMW i8.

“We’re only halfway through 2018 and this column has already been graced by the Jaguar iPace, Renault Zoe, Nissan Leaf, Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid and a plethora of hybrids from Volvos and Lexus. It’s clear the battle has been won by Team Green over the past few years. In the early days, EVs and hybrids were easy to criticise, but that’s changed. Cars are no different to any other technology ? remember the early mobile phones? You could use them as a doorstop once you finished your crackly call, which was probably frying your brain cells. If you’re still resistant to the idea of electrified motors, I reckon the BMW i8 Roadster will make you a believer.”

“The concert was reportedly envisioned to lift the spirits of Tesla workers as they continue work on the new Tesla Model 3 after falling behind in the production schedule, the Detroit Free Press reports.”

Jack White said: “I am a huge fanatic and supporter of everything Tesla has been doing since day one, I’m proud to say I was one of the first Model S owners in Nashville, which I think is the greatest automobile ever made. It’s been a thought of mine for a few years now that I would love to do a free concert for the employees at the Fremont factory. I believe that what Tesla is doing is so important for the future of how we look at car design itself. The added benefits of its help towards fixing climate change and taking the world away from the internal combustion engine are incredible. Making cars that are safer for the occupants and others on the road also fulfil the pioneered dreams of automobile entrepreneur, Preston Tucker, which ultimately is the definition of the American dream. I’m very excited to play for Tesla’s employees who are doing so much good for the progression of technology and the world right now.”

Zach at Clean Technica has been posing questions about the new Nissan LEAF and now my brain can’t work this one out. The new 60kWh, or maybe 64kWh battery, is coming before the end of this year. It hasn’t been confirmed that it has thermal management but the pack comes from LG Chem and they have the technology on their other batteries, so it’s a dead cert.

“…it’s unclear what Nissan will do on the lower LEAF trims. Will those trims use this battery as well and keep the same basic price segmentation as years past? Or will they use the 2018 battery for the base trim and have a significantly lower base price that perhaps makes the LEAF the first $25,000 or cheaper car with 150 miles or more? Or will they use the new battery across trims but still drop the price a bit, perhaps down to a $27,000 base price?”

After rehiring the famous Tesla engineer Doug Fields, it seems that Apple is ready to take the leap into the world of electric automobiles.” says Apple specialist website The iBulletin: “The car, allegedly named as “Project Titan” involved nearly a thousand employees developing the vehicle in an undisclosed location. Doug is now rumoured to have been working with Bob Mansfield, the Apple veteran who revived and heads the project. According to a reliable source, it is said that the car is in development and would hit the market anytime between 2023 and 2025. It is expected to redefine the market of electric cars, integrating hardware and software in a way that has never been done before.”

Do you really need all that electric range? How much range is enough range? What’s your ideal range? And how does that tie into battery charging speed or charging locations?

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